L'enfant loup de Kronstadt

[J'ai vu par hasard que j'avais des visiteurs...  Ce qui m'étonne beaucoup, étant donné que je n'ai pour l'instant mis aucun tag! Quoi qu'il en soit, bonjour à vous =D N'ayez pas peur de laisser des commentaires. Je ne mords pas. Du moins pas pour ça. J'ai vu en particulier que j'avais quelques visiteurs des USA, de la Nouvelle-Zélande et d'Australie! Alors ce qui suit va vous plaire... C'est dans votre langue!]

Aux alentours des années 1780, en Roumanie, a été trouvé un enfant-loup... Enfin, enfant loup si l'on peut dire, puisque c'est à l'âge de 23 ans qu'il fut découvert.

Extrait de Wolf Children and Feral Man de Singh et Zingg. En anglais, je vous le traduirai peut-être un jour... Je dis bien peut-être.

"Here you have information about the wild boy who was found a few years ago in the Siebenburgen-Wallachischen border [Romania] and was brought to Kronstadt [now Brasov], where in 1784 he is still alive. How the poor boy was saved from the forests... I cannot tell. However one must preserve the facts, as they are, in the sad gallery of pictures of this kind.

This unfortunate youth was of the male sex and was of medium size. He had an extremely wild glance. His eyes lay deep in his head, and rolled around in a wild fashion. His forehead was strangely bent inwards, and his hair of ash-gray color grew out short and rough. He had heavy brown eyebrows, which projected out far over his eyes, and a small flat-pressed nose. His neck appeared puffy, and at the windpipe he appeared goitrous. His mouth stood somewhat out when he held it half open as he generally did since he breathed through his mouth. His tongue was almost motionless, and his cheeks appeared more hollow than full, and, like his face, were covered with a dirty yellowish skin. On the first glance at this face, from which a wildness and a sort of animal-being shone forth, one felt that it belonged to no rational creature... The other parts of the wild boy's body, especially the back an the chest were very hairy; the muscles on his arms and legs were stronger and more visible than on ordinary people. The hands were marked with callouses (which supposedly were caused by different uses), and the skin of the hands was dirty yellow and thick throughout, as his face was. On the finger he had very long nails; and on the elbows and knees, he had knobby hardenings. The toes were longer than ordinary. He walked erect, but a little heavily. It seemed as if he would throw himself from one foot to the other. He carried his head and chest forward... He walked bare-footed and did not like shoes on his feet. He was completely lacking in speech, even in the slightest articulations of sounds. The sounds which he uttered were ununderstandable murmuring, which he would give when his guard drove him ahead of him. This murmuring was increased to a howling when he saw woods or even a tree. He seemed to express the wish for his accustomed abode; for once when he was in my room from which a mountain could be seen, the sight of the trees caused him to howl wretchedly... When I saw him the first time, he had no sense of possession. Probably it was his complete unfamiliarity with his new condition, and the longing for his earlier life in the wilds, which he displayed when he saw a garden or a wood. Similarly I explain why, at the beginning, he showed not the slightest emotion at the sight of women. When I saw him again after three years thus apathy and disrespect had disappeared. As soon as he saw a woman, he broke out into violent cries of joy, and tried to express his awakened desires also through gestures... Yet he showed anger and unwillingness when he was hungry and thirsty; and in that case would have very much liked to attack man, though on occasions he would do no harm to men or animals. Aside from the original human body which usually causes a pitiful impression in this state of wildness, and aside from walking erect, one missed in him all the characteristic traits through which human beings are distinguished from the animals; it was rather a much more pitiful sight to see how this helpless creature would waddle around in front of his keeper growling and glaring wildly, and longing for the presence of animals of prey, insensible to everything which appeared before him. In order to control this wild urge, as soon as he came near to the gates of the city, and approached the gardens and woods, they used to tie him up in the beginning. He had to be accompanied by several persons, because he would have forced himself free and would have run away to his former dwelling. In the beginning his food consisted only of all kinds of tree leaves, grass, roots, and raw meat. Only very slowly did he accustom himself to cooked food; and, according to the saying of the person who took care of him, a whole year passed before he learned to eat cooked food; when very obviously his animal wildness diminished.

I am unable to say how old he was. Outwardly he could have been from twenty-three to twenty-five years old. Probably he will never learn how to speak. When I saw him again after three years, I still found him speechless, though changed very obviously in many other respects. His face still expressed something animal-like but had become softer... The desire for food, of which he now liked all kinds (particularly legumes), he would show by intelligible sounds. He showed his visible contentment when one brought him something to eat, and sometimes he would use a spoon. He had gotten used to wear shoes and other clothes; but he was careless about how much they were torn. Slowly he was able to find a way to his house without a leader; the only work for which he could be used consisted of giving him a water jug which he would fill at the well and bring to the house. This was the only service which he could perform for his guardian. He also knew how to provide himself with food by diligently visiting the houses where people had given him food. The instinct of imitation was shown on many occasions; but nothing made a permanent impression on him. Even if he imitated a thing several times, he soon forgot it again, except the custom which had to do with his natural needs, such as eating, drinking, sleeping, etc., and everything which had connection with these. He found his home in the evening, and at noon, the house where he expected food, led only by his habits. He never learned to know the value of money. He did accept it but only with the intention of playing with it, and he did not care when he lost it again. Chiefly he was in every respect like a child whose capacities had begun to develop, only with this difference that he was unable to speak and could not make any progress in that regard. He showed his likeness with a child in the fact that he would gape at everything which one showed him; but, with the same lack of concentration, he would change his glance from the old objects to new ones. If one showed him a mirror he would look behind it for the image before him. But he was completely indifferent when he did not find it, and would allow the mirror to get out of his range of vision. The tunes from musical instruments seemed to interest him, but it was a very slight interest which did not leave any impression. When I led him in front of the piano in my room, he listened to the tunes with an apparent pleasure, but did not dare to touch the keys. He showed great fear when I tried to force him to do so. Since 1784, the year he left Kronstadt, I never had a chance to receive any more reports about him."